Workshop Feedback

I workshopped “Other Side of the World” (formerly “Aya’s Journal”) Monday night in class. It was, as always, a rewarding experience. Everyone seemed to like it, even the people who avowed that they never/rarely read science fiction. There were some interesting reactions to the Roux/human marriage, with some people calling it “creepy” and others wanting more detail. I guess when you have equal numbers on both sides, you’ve struck the right balance. :)

Workshopping is always valuable because you get such different perspectives on your work. For example, everyone liked Aya’s character, but had difficulty with the combination of how uninterested everyone in that world seems to be with the Roux and how dispassionate she herself seems about them. That was intentional, but obviously I didn’t convey a justification for it well enough in the text. That’s okay, I have some ideas now for how to get it across. The second entry (also known as “the big lump of exposition”) can probably be modified to get that point across better.

I’ve never participated in an online workshop, but I can’t imagine the energy in the room Monday night being reproducible in an online situation. People feed off of each other and follow ideas around further than they normally would. Our workshop leader did a good job of making sure that it was a very positively focused session, too. All in all, I’m very jazzed, and actually anxious to go back and edit!